His real big break came as golden-boy knight Jaime Lannister, a.k.a. the Kingslayer, on HBO’sGame Of Thrones, where he was introduced to audiences as a preening, handsome villain who was a little (okay, a lot) too close to his twin sister Cersei. But few characters on Game Of Thrones are as one-note as they might initially seem, and Jaime has had a breakout year on the show’s third season as he suffered capture, maiming, and various other indignities while building a slow friendship with his stout, pious escort Brienne (Gwendoline Christie). Coster-Waldau also appeared in dual roles in 2013’s Mama with Jessica Chastain, the Tom Cruise vehicle Oblivion, and is currently filming a part in Nick Cassavetes’ upcoming The Other Woman with Leslie Mann and Cameron Diaz. The A.V. Club talked to him about his big step up in Thrones’ third season—and acting with a bear...

... AVC: You spent most of this season with Brienne. It’s like a buddy-cop movie with the two of you.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau: "We have a lot of fun together, I wish it could go on forever—we have a little separate show going. She’s a lot of fun to be around. Sometimes, people ask us why we fight so much. We don’t really, but it sounds like that to everyone else. I think it started out because the first scenes we did had me talking to her about how… I had all these scenes where I was being nasty to her. I think it was about how she’d never been with a man. And it’s a horrible thing to say to a woman, so that was the only time after that I said, “I just want to apologize.” And then she said something cheeky, and we kind of just kept going at it. It makes what you see very tame compared to how we are off camera. But it’s fun, she’s very smart, and she’s a very good actress."

AVC: Who’s the better scene partner, her or the bear?

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau: "Well, the bear was by far the biggest diva. I’ve never seen a bigger one. To get the bear just to walk on set, the whole crew had to stand in a circle and applaud, and shout, “Yay!” In between takes, whenever they said “cut,” everyone just had to go crazy with applause and cheer to make him happy..."